Rise of the Horde

Bakrah licked his lips and headed towards the table of food after failing to detect any threat inside the tent. The only ones that danger might come from are the two trembling women at one corner of the tent which was less likely as the two of them are bound by chains.

He grabbed a huge chunk of meat that was placed on the table and happily munched on it and turned around towards the two chained individuals as he chewed his food.

“That’s tastes good,” he muttered to himself and proceeded to stuff every food that could catch his fancy and have a taste of it. Grabbing a finely decorated bottle, he snapped the head of the bottle against the corner of the table then raised it up towards his mouth and chugged its contents.

“Ah! That hits the spot.” he complimented as he rubbed his stomach after eating his fill. It has been long since he has had such a good meal ever since they started moving around the endless sands to harass the humans that dared to come close to their lands.

“Well... It’s time to leave,” he said to himself and headed out towards the entrance of the tent while ignoring the existence of the two individuals inside the tent. They must be slaves and treated badly by their master he thought but that was none of his concern as he wasn’t here to meddle with the affairs of the human masters and their slaves. He was still thinking about the strange creatures outside and how many of them can he take with him in their retreat from the enemy camp.

His head was filled with what good reasons would he tell his brother for straying away from the squad and acting by himself since he was sure that he would surely be pissed after discovering that he is missing from where he was supposed to be at. He didn’t notice that the taller one between the two chained humans crawled towards him and grabbed his leg while staring at him with a pleading look. He took two steps forward before he realized that his left foot was heavier than usual which prompted him to look down and discover the human that was tightly clinging on his left leg and staring at him with a pitiful look.

.....

“Dakam. (Let go,” he muttered as he tried to shake off the human from his leg and successfully made her let go after shaking his leg a few times. He snorted then was about to continue walking away when he felt the additional weight on his left leg again which annoyed him. Looking down towards the one clinging on his leg with an annoyed face.

“Dakam nokar’arbak! (Let go before I kill you.) he threatened while glaring at the human but the human just stared at him with a pleading look. Annoyed, Bakrah put his hand on the hilt of his blade to unsheathe it and get rid of the annoying pest on his leg. When he was about to fully unsheathe the entire length of his blade, he heard the sound of clanging chains. He moved his gaze towards its origin and saw the shorter one between the two chained humans headed his way and shielded the one clinging on his leg with her own body.

“Please take us with you, please.” Helena pleaded while looking up at the huge creature whose leg she was clinging to. She had no idea what the creature might do to them but she took her chances as she had already seen some creatures like the one that she was clinging on to attack their camp many times already and they don’t seem to be interested in the servants following the army of the two Barons as they only went after the soldiers and massacred them. She didn’t know what had gotten into her to fearlessly grab onto the creature that could easily crush her to death.

Bakrah crouched down and came eye to eye to the one holding on to his leg and saw her eyes that were filled with terror but were still tightly clinging on his leg. He then moved his gaze towards the smaller one between the two and studied her face closely. The trembling of the two, he could clearly see and feel it as they were scared of him but they still clung to him.

What sort of abuse did these two suffer to take their chances to do what they are currently are doing right now just to escape he thought. He snorted in annoyance then let go of his hold on the hilt of his blade then grabbed the neck of the one clinging on him carefully then traced his hands on the chains. Grabbing a few inches of the chains with his two hands, he exerted some strength then broke the chains. Bakrah did the same to the chains bounding the smaller one.

After hearing the sound of the chains breaking apart, Helena hurriedly hugged her daughter and let go of the leg that she was holding. Bakrah let out a sigh of relief then turned around to head out as he had already done the two a huge favor by freeing them from their chains. Their lives are theirs now and their freedom will solely rely upon their own capabilities to get out of this place.

Bakrah headed back to where the creatures with a dome on their backs were at and grabbed the reins of some of them. He turned around and was about to head back to where his brother and the rest of his squad were at when he saw the two humans that he freed from their chains behind him. Using his free hand, he shooed them away before walking past them and headed back to where he was supposed to be before his brother gets more pissed off than he is already.

It took Bakrah quite some effort to lead the creatures with domes on their back to lead as they protested against being led by him. He tightened his hold on the reins and gave it a powerful tug and successfully pulled them a few feet forward only for them to continue their protest after a few steps forward. Annoyed, Bakrah approached the biggest of them which he considered to be the leader of the group, and gave it a powerful smack in the face which brought down the poor creature to the ground, probably dizzy after the strike that it just received.

“Follow me or you’ll suffer like him.” Bakrah threatened the others as he pointed a finger at the poor creature that was slowly getting up on its legs after being smacked towards the ground. He had no idea if they understood his words but he didn’t care, if they continue to not follow him, he’ll give them a round of smacking till they are docile enough to follow him. Maybe the creatures understood his words or were just scared of him smacking them too, they silently followed behind him as he moved forward. Bakrah didn’t even need to pull the reins as the creatures tightly followed behind him.

Helena stared in shock and fear at what she just witnessed. In all her life, she had never witnessed such a way of taming before, and more importantly, those camels belonged to the Baron and are unruly ones who were used to being treated well by those who handled them since their caretakers feared the wrath of the Baron which in turn made them as they are now. They would often bite the hairs of those handling them, give them a kick or two or worse trample them to death and they never got punished for it.

“Should we continue in following?” Tina turned her gaze to her mother from the back of the creature leading the camels away. Fear was apparent in her eyes as she considered the one who freed them from their chains to be a violent one just like their Lord. She feared that they might also suffer the same fate as the camel that got smacked silly for not following after him. Imagining herself at the receiving end of that powerful slap, she shuddered at the thought of it. There was no way that her small body would be able to endure that kind of strike, maybe her head would just be forcefully ripped away from her head if that happens.

“We have no choice.” Everyone in the camp knows that we belong to the Baron and they would surely capture us and return us to him. “He sure is scary but he might be the only one that can help us escape from this place. You saw how he tried to shoo us away, he seems to see our existence as insignificant and has no interest in us.” she continued as she moved her legs and followed after the camels while dragging her daughter behind her.